![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260319-Rachel-jordan-vl-119p-16ea0b.jpg\")
Rachel Jordan.Courtesy Rachel Jordan<\/p>\nSome days for Rachel Jordan start at 5 a.m. and don\u2019t end until midnight \u2014 sometimes for multiple days in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just exhausted, honestly,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Jordan, 43, is one of the millions of Americans who work two jobs to get by as they try to pay down debts they incurred early in life. With about $75,000 in outstanding student loan debt, Jordan often works 70 hours a week to pay it down.<\/p>\n
Although she\u2019s not required to make payments since her loans are in forbearance, Jordan said she usually aims to pay a minimum of $1,600 a month while working toward a larger monthly payment goal of $2,000.<\/p>\n
Living in Tampa, Florida, Jordan shares a one-bedroom apartment with her French bulldog and generally tries to keep her living expenses low to focus on her loans. Her early job consists of servicing commercial real estate loans. Once that shift is done, she\u2019ll get a short break to take care of her dog before heading to Target, where she works in the kids clothing section.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a routine she started last year, when she realized that her debt was unsustainable. And in order to hold herself accountable to her goals, Jordan frequently posts videos to YouTube and TikTok documenting her debt-free journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like if I didn\u2019t do this, if I didn\u2019t do this now, it was only going to keep just being that thing that followed me through life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Business of debt<\/p>\n
During the pandemic, Jordan said she had racked up about six figures of debt between her student loans, a car and credit card debt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was spending some on my groceries, gas, things to get me by each week, but also was spending it on trips to Target for clothing or stupid stuff that I didn\u2019t need to buy,\u201d she said. \u201cI used credit cards and spending to give me that dopamine hit and help me through that time.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rachel Jordan.Courtesy Rachel Jordan<\/p>\n
And she isn\u2019t alone in her debt: Total U.S. household debt<\/a> \u2014 from housing costs, credit cards, car loans, student loans and more \u2014 jumped up to $18.8 trillion at the end of last year. The rising cost of living has pushed many consumers to look into alternative payment sources, like buy now, pay later<\/a>, to pay for everyday goods.<\/p>\n In an effort to get out of her own debt, Jordan began making payments and officially became free of credit card debt last year. She said that remains the case to this day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to think beyond too much because I just feel like if I put too much pressure on myself for more than I already am, it\u2019s like I literally crumble,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Shaking off this aspect of her debt changed the way Jordan viewed her finances. Now, she said she treats her credit card like a debit card, paying it off every week, and only spends what she budgets for.<\/p>\n Having never been taught about finances growing up, Jordan said \u201cit\u2019s all been learning as I go.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first was on TikTok is when I first \u2014 in my almost 40 years of life \u2014 heard about a Roth IRA,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of learning from seeing what other people are doing, but also learning as I go and make my own mistakes and read up on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n To keep herself going, Jordan set a short-term goal to pay off $25,000 of her student debt by October of this year. Looking toward the future, she has her eye on saving her first $100,000 between her retirement and a high-yield savings account. So far, Jordan has been able to put aside more than $13,000 combined in her savings and retirement.<\/p>\n Accounting and accountability<\/p>\n Posting videos online detailing her journey has given Jordan a slight monetary bump every few months, but more so it has become an important space for her to process her experience with debt.<\/p>\n \u201c[It] really has propelled me forward, has kept me sane and given me an outlet,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think I would be as strict with myself if I didn\u2019t have that commitment to the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n While social media has helped Jordan keep tabs on her progress, it has also helped her find community with other people struggling with debt.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many people have left the comments on a YouTube video, where I have more of a larger audience, saying \u2018You\u2019ve motivated me\u2019 or \u2018I never knew this\u2019 or \u2018You\u2019re the reason why I started paying all my student loans,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in Covid times, I was in so much debt,\u201d she continued. \u201cI felt like I was isolated. Even though obviously I\u2019m not the only one in the world in this situation, it felt like I was. But putting the video down online and realizing that I\u2019m not has been so motivating just to stay on the journey and to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI used to get dopamine hits from going to Target, and now I get dopamine hits from every time I make a payment,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n Loans in limbo<\/p>\n Jordan\u2019s student loan debt comes from two undergraduate accounting degrees, one from the University of Phoenix and another from Western Carolina University.<\/p>\n In 2022, Jordan decided to apply for student loan forgiveness for her first accounting degree. After applying, she said she received notice acknowledging the receipt of her application, but hasn\u2019t heard anything since then: \u201cNo news, no updates, literally nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n She said her loans are in forbearance as she waits for a decision, but struggles with the unknown future status of her debt. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been difficult because I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d she said. \u201c[The] times that I have reached out to the Department of Ed, it has been like, \u2018Oh, your application is still in process.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And that still seems to be the case: Jordan said every time she checks the status of her application through her account, it says it\u2019s still under review.<\/p>\n Living in a \u201climbo situation\u201d has made it difficult for Jordan to make a decision on how to ultimately deal with her looming student debt. She said she\u2019s constantly flip-flopping between whether she should pay the minimum and wait for forgiveness or just pay off her remaining debt.<\/p>\n But the fear that another administration could come in and \u201cchange the rules\u201d motivates her to want to be debt-free instead, she said.<\/p>\n However, even if she were able to pay off the rest of her loans, Jordan said she feels like she would \u201cstill need to work this hard just because I feel so behind in my retirement efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n Jordan told NBC News that she tries not to think about her current financial situation because she feels so behind: \u201cIf I just think about the overall, then it\u2019s just a little bit too much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing all that I can and dedicating every dollar that I can to saving and to my debt,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s truly nothing more that I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some days for Rachel Jordan start at 5 a.m. and don\u2019t end until midnight \u2014 sometimes for multiple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-201236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}